Tuesday, December 5, 2006

Phillies can win the 2007 World Series.

Here's my plan for the Phillies to win the '07 Series...

#1) Sign Barry Zito. Give him what he wants. $102 million for 6 years would get it done.

#2) Trade for Manny Ramirez. OK, I edited this because it appears that Boston is asking for the kitchen sink for Manny. I think they would take Hamels, but if not, then give them a couple high-level prospects as well.

#3) Sign Piazza and keep Ruiz as the backup. Mike can catch around 120 games and DH in the interleague games. Ruiz is a very good backup.

So here's the starting 5...

ZitoMyersEatonMoyerLieber

That's a pretty solid 5, and with 2 lefties, they can do well against the Mets who struggle against left-handed pitching.

Doesn't Howard become another Big Papi in that lineup? Utley can do it all and he showed last year he is clutch. Piazza can still hit...and maybe some pressure comes off Burrell and he learns to relax. Victorino is a solid CF and Helms is better than Nunez at 3B. As long as Jimmy plays the role of Leadoff hitter and doesn't try to match Howard's power numbers, I think that lineup will be just fine.

The bullpen will be questionable, but hopefully, Flash can close as well as last year and with the solid starting 5, maybe they won't be overused as they were last year.